


Lovers Unawere

by BertholdvonMoosburg



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxious Katsuki Yuuri, Bottom Victor Nikiforov, Canon Compliant, Crack, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fear of Abandonment, Frottage, Hand Jobs, Humor, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Relationship Negotiation, Smut, Sort Of, Werewolf AU, Werewolf Katsuki Yuuri, at the beginning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-01-04 08:55:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12165633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BertholdvonMoosburg/pseuds/BertholdvonMoosburg
Summary: In the end, it was a dream that gave it away. Not a prophetic dream, like in the stories they'd both been told as children (some folklore transcends culture). Just a plain old boring regular dream at the wrong time.





	1. In Which a Discovery Is Made

**Author's Note:**

> Many many thanks to [thicctor-nikiforov](http://archiveofourown.org/users/trashbambi/pseuds/thicctor-nikiforov) for convincing me to write this, and for all the cheerleading. I hope you enjoy it!

In the end, it was a dream that gave it away. Not a prophetic dream, like in the stories they'd both been told as children (some folklore transcends culture). Just a plain old boring regular dream at the wrong time. 

Victor woke up drenched in sweat. It was a stereotype that as a Russian he should be hardy in the cold, but he really actually liked a heavy layer of blankets and quilts in the winter. He'd never overestimated so badly before. Upon feeling the soft fur against his naked back, his first thought was that Makkachin had crawled in between him and Yuuri.

But Makka, dear thing that she was, was getting older and had taken to snoring softly in her sleep. Victor’s sleep-muzzied brain registered the sound of it across the room, which meant that she couldn't be behind him. Had… had Yuuri snuck out in the night and brought home an enormous new puppy as a surprise? Why would it be in bed with them, though? 

Finally he managed to collect himself well enough to do the sensible thing, which was to flick on the bedside lamp and sit up. Groaning with disgust, he shoved the sodden covers back off and looked beside himself.

And  _ screamed _ .

The enormous canine form beside him flew awake, flailing madly under the 6 layers of quilts and fell off the bed, taking the quilts with it.

Victor screamed again. He was a grown man, veteran of rabid fans, stalkers, obscene callers and creepy fan mail, a thousand agonising falls on the ice. He fancied himself a man difficult to frighten. 

The creature got itself upright and backed away from the bed until it hit the wall, paws out in front of itself defensively.

“Vitya,” it growled. “Vitya, Vitya, oh baka baka baka BAKA  _ BAKA _ !”

Hearing it talk, Victor’s jaw shut suddenly with a snap. Makkachin boofed quietly from her doggie bed, unconcerned.

“I thought dogs were supposed to protect their masters,” Victor hissed.

“She knows I'm not going to hurt you,” the creature growled again. “Vitya, it's  _ me _ , Yuuri.”

“Yuuri?” 

It nodded.

Victor paused and looked the creature up and down. It was standing on its back legs, crouched down a bit. Probably if it stood fully upright it would be at least seven feet tall. Definitely canine. The front paws held in front of it weren't quite doggish, having paw pads but human-shaped digits. Its fur was mainly tan and brown, shades that resembled his fiancé’s skin.  It's eyes were pleading. Most important, it was making no move towards Victor.

As Victor appeared to calm, the creature’s tail gave a small hopeful wag. It reminded him so much of Makkachin when she was hoping for a tidbit of his dinner that Victor had to laugh.

“Yuuri, is it actually you in there? I feel like I'm having a strange dream.”

The creature sat on its haunches. “It's me, Vitya. We met in Sochi when I was drunk, and you coached me through the Grand Prix series. You hate aubergines and have a secret love of Beyoncé. You cried the first time I had my cock ins-”

“ _ It’s really you? _ ”

Wolf-Yuuri nodded. “It's actually me, Vitya. Can I come back to the bed? I'll explain as best as I can. I, um, can't change back just yet.”

He waited anxiously as Victor considered the situation. Finally Victor nodded.

Yuuri walked on his hind legs back to the pile of blankets he'd torn off the bed, and placed them up in a pile at the foot of the bed. He climbed onto the mattress and sat there awkwardly for moment before shifting into a more doggish sitting position. Once he was still, Victor took a step toward him.

“You promise you're really my Yuuri?” he asked again.

“I promise,” Wolf-Yuuri assured him.

Victor walked quickly to the bed before he thought better of it.

Yuuri whined. “It happened when I was five. I had run down the beach from my parents, and even then I loved dogs. So when I saw a dog all by itself behind a rock, I went to pet it. It bit me.”

He gave a short, low bark, and Victor jumped.

“ _ Kuso _ . I'm sorry, Vitya, all my sounds are different when I'm like this. It's known in the medical community as ‘ _ Major Lupiform Paramorphosis _ ’, since ‘werewolf’ doesn't sound very scientific. It's really rare, so most people don't realise it's a real thing. I, um, never knew how to tell you, and my medication keeps it controlled and… I didn't expect this to happen.”

He paused to look at his fiancé pleadingly. 

“Yuuri,” Victor said, “What  _ did _ happen?”

He scratched his ear awkwardly. 

“It goes in a cycle,” Yuuri explained. “The whole ‘full moon’ thing is a myth but the change is regulated by hormones. With the right medication I don't  _ have _ to change when I, um, cycle - I choose to or not. And I  _ never _ want to change, but, um, I had a dream you were a rabbit.” The last part was rumbled so quietly that Victor almost didn't catch it.

“I was a rabbit,” he repeated. 

Yuuri whined, and his tail thumped the bed once. “It used to happen a lot when I was a teenager and it was my cycle. Vitya, you know I used to idolise you. My wolfish part translated that… differently.” He whined again and started to reach for his fiancé but stopped himself.

Victor stood and paced the room in silence. Yuuri’s ears flicked around following him, but Victor could read even in Yuuri's wolfish form how hard he was trying to stay still. Finally he walked over to Yuuri’s side and stood there. 

“If you can pick when to change then  _ change back _ , Yuuri. I can't deal with it right now with you like this. I need my beautiful  _ human _ fiancé back before I can even  _ start _ to process it.”

“I… I can't,” Yuuri admitted. “When I'm in my cycle, changing is easy. I  _ can _ change back, but it's hard and exhausting and I have to be calm enough to focus. I'm… I'm trying not to panic that you're going to tell me to get out and never contact you again.”

Victor stared at him. Yuuri sunk down low until his snout was on the mattress. He was huge, he was furry, and he had a medical condition straight out of fairytales. He was looking at Victor with the same expression Makkachin had when he'd yelled at her for chewing a hat he'd left lying around when he was 12 and she a puppy.

“Yuuri, I don't know what the hell to think about this. It's going to take me a long time. You're going to have to be patient with me. But I fell in love with you in Sochi and then I fell in real love with you that summer in Hasetsu, and I'm not going to break up with you now. I love you. I want to marry you.” And if Yuuri’s wolfish hearing caught the slightest hesitation in his voice at that last part, he didn't blame Victor.

“Vitya,” he said awkwardly, “would you be willing to scratch behind my ears? My family used to do that when this happened, and it would help me relax so I could change back.”

Victor sat. His fiancé’s anxiety was familiar, even if his body was now a terrifying mystery. He reached out a tentative hand and ran it over Yuuri’s fur. “You're so soft!” he exclaimed. 

“Yeah,” Yuuri said, settling in.

Victor stroked him between the ears, and Yuuri’s eyes began to drift shut. When Victor scratched behind an ear, Yuuri’s wolf body began to slump in relaxation, and Victor smiled a little. It was so like Makkachin. He just kept up the caress until Yuuri’s tail began to twitch a little. 

“You can wag if it helps,” Victor offered. 

Yuuri gave a long, canine sigh, and his tail began to wag in earnest, first slowly and then flicking back and forth like a metronome. Victor smiled more.

“ _ Ya lyublyu tebya, zolotse _ ,” he whispered. 

“I love you too, Vitya,” Yuuri whispered back. “I think I might be able to change back now. Would you mind going into the hallway? It's kind of weird and I don't want to freak you out worse.”

“Alright,” Victor said. “Call me in as soon as you're back?”

Yuuri nodded

With a final scratch, Victor stood and left the room. He waited outside the door for what felt like eternity but was probably only a few minutes. 

Finally, Yuuri called “You can come back now, Vitya.” 

He opened the door and there was his fiancé, his human fiancé. Victor rushed to the bed and threw his arms around Yuuri. 

Yuuri wrapped his arms weakly around Victor’s neck. Victor pulled back and looked him over slowly. His lover's face was familiar and achingly beautiful, with no trace of the wolf that lurked inside him. As Victor’s eyes traced the one-again-familiar features, he began to notice the dark circles of exhaustion around Yuuri’s eyes, the crease on his forehead, how clammy his skin was. Yuuri shivered violently.

“ _ Zvezda _ , do you have a chill? You look terrible!”

Yuuri smiled weakly at him. “I told you it’s difficult to turn back. I'm afraid I won't be at practice for a couple days, Coach. I just need a few days to rest through the rest of this cycle. Can we order dinner in tonight? Something with meat?”

“Of course, Yuuri. What else can I do to help you feel better?” It might take awhile to get used to the notion that his fiancé was a werewolf, but Victor could never bear seeing him in distress. 

“Can I have a drink? And an extra blanket? I'm so cold.”

Victor kissed him on the forehead. “Of course. It's four in the morning but I can heat up the stroganoff leftovers if you need something now?”

Yuuri just nodded, tears springing to his eyes. “I'm so sorry, Vitya. I'm so sorry. This hasn't happened in years. I never wanted you to see me like this!”

Victor kissed him again. “Yuuri, we'll talk about it later when you're feeling better. I'll go get you one of bottles of sports drink and put the stroganoff in the microwave. I'll be right back, I promise.”

In the kitchen, Victor set the food to warm, flicked on the kettle, and grabbed a drink. Bringing it back to his fiancé, he hugged him again, inhaling and revelling in his familiar smell. The microwave beeped.

“ _ Zvezda _ , will you be going back to sleep or would you like some tea? I'm pretty wide awake with adrenaline, myself.”

Yuuri nodded again. “Maybe the gyokuro?”

“Alright. I'll be right back again with tea and food. Drink what you can in the meantime.”

Victor fetched the promised items and climbed onto the bed to sit with his fiancé properly. It was starting to feel a little like he'd only had a nightmare, but the light scattering of tawny fur on the sheets told him otherwise. He had a million and one questions, but was determined to not hurl them at Yuuri all at once. He'd learned from hard early experience that there was no surer way of being shut out.

After Yuuri ate, they shifted back to the head of the bed to sip their tea. Yuuri didn't lean into Victor the way he normally would, shifting to keep a careful distance.  _ This _ , however, Victor knew it was better to ask about.

“Yuuri, you can sit closer if you want,” he said, holding his arm out for the smaller man to snuggle into. “I would like the reassurance too.”

With a relieved sigh, Yuuri shifted back, burrowing under Victor’s arm and pressing close. “I didn't want to assume. Most, um, MLP sufferers keep their condition a secret even from loved ones. We’re one of humanity’s ‘goes bump in the night’ monsters. You might not be kicking me out but you might not want to touch me, either.”

Victor sipped his tea and squeezed his lover gently. Something undefinable shifted inside of him, and tears he didn't let fall welled up. He knew that he couldn't abandon Yuuri, not like that. He couldn't ever hate his  _ zvezda _ . Somehow they'd work this out. 

***

They woke up still cuddled together like that. The last dregs of Victor’s tea had spilled on his leg. Groaning, he tried to sit upright. Decades of high-level jumps had not been kind to his hips, even though he wasn't yet thirty. 

The light streaming into the window suggested it was late morning, and the buzzing of his mobile phone on the nightstand - flashing a picture of Yakov taken in the middle of one of his infamous rants - confirmed it.

Blearily, Victor tapped the answer button.

“ _ Da? _ ” was all he got out before Yakov was demanding to know where they were, why Katsuki wasn't practicing, did he not take his coaching seriously, did Yakov not teach him better than this, they'd better not have been up all night  _ entertaining _ each other again, he should get his and Katsuki’s asses to the rink pronto. It was all so predictable and familiar after the surrealism of the previous night that it was all Victor could do to apologise and tell his old coach that Yuuri was sick and they might not be in for a couple of days. He hung up, Yakov still yelling at him, and turned off his phone.

Yuuri sat himself up, groaning as painfully as Victor had. “Sleeping like that was a mistake,” he said, fumbling for his glasses on his nightstand. Victor reached over and pushed them down from his forehead onto his face properly.

“I'm pretty sure we didn't mean to,” he answered. “I know I thought I was going to be up till the sun rose.”

“Panic will do that to you,” said Yuuri. He toyed with the bedsheet. “What now?”

“Now,” Victor said firmly, “we eat some brunch. Then we shower, change the bedsheets, and talk. That was Yakov calling and I've informed him that we won't be in for a couple of days You need to recover, and I need to know more about this… all this. As your coach as well as your fiancé. I'm going to go put coffee on. Are you up to joining me in the kitchen while I make us brunch?”

Yuuri looked down at his hands. “I think so, if you want me there. I'd like to stay close. Can I have some more tea instead of coffee today, though?”

“Of course,  _ zolotse _ !” 

Victor considered his lover, took note of the dark circles that had not faded from his eyes more than a fraction. “Do you need a hand?” 

A flash of irritation passed over Yuuri’s features, quickly replaced with resignation. He sighed. “I probably do.”

Victor came over to Yuuri’s side of the bed and held out a hand. He helped Yuuri get on his feet and stepped back. He followed as Yuuri walked slowly down the hall to the kitchen, then pulled out a chair for him so he could sit down heavily.

Victor busied himself pulling out eggs, ham, and the dense rye bread they favoured. It was heavier than their usual fare, but he judged that Yuuri would probably need it.

They talked about mundane things through brunch: the antics of their rinkmates, possible songs for the following season, the Russian soap opera that Victor had gotten Yuuri hooked on. Makkachin abandoned her usual attempts to charm tidbits out of Victor in favour of resting her chin on Yuuri’s leg and whining softly. 

As Yuuri’s coach, Victor knew every precise detail of his training diet. He watched his athlete devour three times his usual breakfast, and said nothing. Yuuri slumped back is his chair at last and sipped at his second mug of tea. Some of the weariness had faded from his frame, but his eyes drooped sleepily.

“When you're finished your tea,  _ zolotse moya _ , I want to get you in the shower. I'm just not sure you'll be able to stay upright long enough. Do you want me to join you, or do you want to run a bath instead?”

“A bath, I think, Vitya. It’s already hard enough with you having to look after me like this.” He was always so stubborn about being looked after and it drove Victor  _ crazy _ at times. 

“Alright. I'll get it running, change the bedsheets, and come and keep you company.”

“But Vitya,” Yuuri protested, “you shouldn't have to change the bed yourself. It’s my fault it's covered in fur!”

Victor helped him stand. “And I drenched the sheets. Okay, Yuuri, so it's your fault. But I can get them changed a lot faster by myself than if you're helping, right now. So let me do it. I'm tired as well and would like to have a nap not hunched up on the bed.”

Yuuri ceased arguing and they walked back down the hall. Victor got the water going and left his stubborn fiancé to get himself into the tub, knowing Yuuri would rather knock himself silly on the porcelain than ask for help before he needed it. Stripping the sheets and making up their king-sized bed took only a few minutes, and the washing machine was whirring happily when he rejoined Yuuri in the bathroom.

Yuuri was sitting in the steaming tub, eyes closed. He looked so  _ normal _ that Victor couldn't help reaching out and stroking his jaw. He opened his eyes.

“This is nice,” he said, smiling the most genuine smile Victor had seen all morning. “It always helped to soak in the onsen. When I was younger, I wasn't allowed in during my cycle, but when I got old enough that I could be trusted it was the best thing after an accidental transformation.”

“I still can't believe it,” Victor said. “It's impossible. I skated to  _ Peter and the Wolf _ once, you know.”

“2002. You won bronze at the Junior Grand Prix.”

Victor grinned. His delight at his fiancé’s former obsession had never faded. For a moment, they were the same people they were yesterday. He was suddenly overcome with the need to touch Yuuri, to trace his fingers over his skin and feel all the familiar dips and curves.

“ _ Zolotse _ ,” he began. “Yuuri. Can I join you? I need to hold you and feel you, I need to have your skin on mine…”

Yuuri looked shocked. Victor felt bile and disappointment churn in his gut.  _ How could Yuuri think he wouldn't need reassurance that he was still the same man? That he was still  _ human _? _

“Are you sure you want to? I mean, I don't understand how you even want to touch me, let alone get in a bath with me.”

Victor snapped back to reality. Yuuri was staring down at the water, biting his lip. 

“Move forward,  _ zvezda _ .”

The water was hot, almost too hot, exactly as Yuuri liked it. They'd had to have a plumber recalibrate the hot water heater to get a temperature Yuuri was satisfied with a month after he moved in. Victor sank down behind him and wrapped his arms around his fiancé’s chest, leaning forward slightly to rest his face on his shoulder. 

“You feel the same as you always do,” he said, running his hand over Yuuri’s firm abdomen.

“That's how it is,” Yuuri replied. “In my case, the MLP is total. No one is quite sure  _ how _ it happens, but when I change, everything goes wolfish. When I change back, everything goes human.” His fingers brushed over Victor's. “Some people only have a partial transformation. That's the ‘minor’ form of the condition. I'm not that lucky.”

Victor's hands moved down Yuuri’s hips. “It's a shame you have to worry about losing control of your body like that, without even knowing why.”

Yuuri looked back at him. “I only like losing control of my body to  _ you _ ,” he grinned.

“Mmmm,” Victor hummed, tightening his hands around Yuuri’s middle. “I like that too. You have a good point.”

“You really like my body? Even though it turned into a wolf last night?”

Victor slid his hand lower to cup his fiancé’s soft cock and balls and tugged him so they were both lying back. “I love your body. I love watching it on the ice making music. I love its strength. I love its cock inside me. I love the sounds it makes when  _ I'm  _ inside of  _ it _ .”

He didn't understand why he was doing it, except perhaps a simple, deep need to affirm their connection. Yuuri began to swell in his hand. Victor wrapped it around Yuuri’s cock and began to move it slowly.

“I love your body, Yuuri,  _ zolotse _ . It's the most beautiful body I've ever seen. I love feeling you on top of me, pounding into me and panting in my ear. Your skin is delicious.”

Yuuri moaned softly, hips jerking. “Vitya, Vitya, please, you don't have to.”

“I do,  _ zolotse _ , I do. I need to feel you.” He pinched one of Yuuri’s nipples, eliciting another moan.

“Your cock is the most delicious thing I've ever had in my mouth, and that includes your mother’s katsudon.” He moved his hand faster. “I love it when you stuff my face with it and hold me there. God, you're so hot, Yuuri. Your body is amazing.”

Victor himself was getting hard, thinking about the things they'd done to each other, hearing Yuuri’s whines and moans as he jerked him off in the bath. He rutted up against his fiancé, chasing the friction. 

The stress and anxiety were doing strange things to his body, and he panted in Yuuri’s ear, jerking his cock faster. Yuuri’s hips were moving wildly.

Water splashed all over the floor from their frantic movements, but even if Victor had noticed, he wouldn't have cared. He felt his orgasm approach as Yuuri arched back against him and came hard into the water, strings of white dispersing in the churning water. Yuuri collapsed back on Victor's chest with a groan. Victor rutted frantically, helplessly against him. The tension in his gut coiled tighter. He bit down hard on Yuuri’s shoulder as he shook violently with his own release.

The two men, coach and student, lovers and fiancés, panted in each other's ears as the water gradually stilled around them.

“I love you, Yuuri,” Victor finally said into the quiet. His voice was rough with intensity. “This whole thing freaks me out. I feel sick thinking about you in any shape but this one. I have so many questions that I don't know where to start. But  _ I love you _ . I'm not breaking up with you, and I want to touch, hold, and fuck you just the same. Please don't doubt that I want you and want to be with you. We'll get through this.”

And then Victor heard a sound, one he hadn't heard for years. One he hadn't heard since the early days of their relationship when he didn’t understand the nature of his new boyfriend’s anxieties. Yuuri twisted in his arms and buried his face in Victor's neck. His body shook with loud sobs. Victor just held Yuuri, letting his emotions wash through him.

Finally the sobs began to soften and quiet. Victor waited until his fiancé lifted his face up again and kissed his forehead softly.

“I think we should shower after all, and then let's go back to bed,  _ zvezda moya _ . Everything else can wait until later.”

“I’d like that,” Yuuri whispered. “Thank you, Vitenka.”

Victor just kissed him softly again.

Yuuri pulled the plug and they both climbed out. Victor helped Yuuri through a short shower, washing his hair and body not because Yuuri couldn't, but because he wanted to keep reminding his fiancé how much he was loved. Victor’s pain and confusion were still there in the background, but they would wait until his dear Yuuri was not so exhausted and distraught.

They climbed into the freshly made bed together. Victor gathered Yuuri into his arms, kissing him tenderly over and over. Yuuri’s kisses slowed as his body relaxed into the embrace. Victor switched to stroking his lover’s hair until he heard the soft huffhuff- _ sigh _ that meant Yuuri was truly asleep.

He let himself drift, then, wrung out from the myriad emotions of the past twelve hours. His last conscious thought was reminding himself not to scream again if he woke up with a wolf in his arms. It would hurt Yuuri, and besides, his dignity could only handle one such shrill outburst a year. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, guys. The angst won't last terribly long. These boys are crazy about each other, nothing a little lycanthropy could ruin!
> 
> This is my first real multi-chapter fic. I promise that one way or another I will not leave you hanging. I don't know how many chapters this will run. My current expectation is that you will probably get 8-10 chapters, but that could easily change. I'm intending that updates will be fortnightly, but if that changes I will say something. This chapter barely deserves the E rating, but I figure it's better to warn everyone what they're getting into.


	2. In Which Conversations Are Had

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a long sleep, Victor and Yuuri talk and try to reconnect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long. I had a rough few days where I wasn't able to write at all. Hopefully the next chapter will be up the second Friday from now.

He did, in fact, wake to his familiar human-shaped fiancé. 

Yuuri was sleeping soundly still, face mashed into the pillow and drool pooling beneath his mouth. Victor brushed his hair back off his face. The evening light gave his lover’s face a soft golden glow.

There was a scratching at the bedroom door. Makkachin!

Guiltily Victor went to fill Makka’s bowls. She'd been so patient all day while they slept. He pulled on some clothes and called their favourite Italian restaurant for some dinner, making sure to order Yuuri steak as well as his usual pasta. Until Yuuri told him otherwise, he intended to ensure there was always some hearty protein available in case he needed it.

He hooked Makka to her leash and went out to pick it up. It was longer than their usual walk, but he needed the stretch and the fresh air.

As they walked, he tried to decide what he wanted to ask Yuuri first. Questions swirled through his mind from the practical ( _ How long is your “cycle”? _ ) to the philosophical ( _ How does your consciousness stay the same if your whole body changes? _ ) to the simply nosey ( _ Does changing hurt? _ ). He had no idea if Yuuri would even be in a state where he could answer questions, but he figured he should start organising his thoughts about it regardless.

Returning home, he was balancing the food in one hand and fumbling at the door with Makka’s leash and his keys in the other, when the door swung open. Yuuri stood there in an untied robe, eyes wide with panic.

“Vitya!” he cried in relief. “You came back!”

“Of course I did,  _ zolotse _ . I just went to walk Makka and pick us up some dinner. I promised you I wouldn't leave you.”

They moved back into the apartment. Yuuri unhooked Makkachin from her leash as Victor set out the food and filled a kong with the gourmet canine pâté that he kept for special occasions.

“I kept telling myself of course you'd be back. Makka was gone so I knew you were probably just taking her out. But then you weren't back and the worry started in and… I'm sorry,” he finished. “I should have trusted you.”

They sat. 

“ _ Zolotse _ ,” said Victor with concern, “You've never been like this before. Even when we started dating and you were sure I couldn't be serious about you, you didn't worry like this.”

“But now you  _ know _ ,” replied Yuuri slowly. “There's not many of us MLP sufferers out there. We kind of keep in loose contact with each other. No one’s  _ ever _ come out to their partner and had the relationship survive. Sometimes they say ‘I'm not leaving you’ at first but then they always do. One woman in America had her husband try to tie her up in the basement and sell her to a zoo! A lot of people are disowned by their families. It's so lonely. All my life it's been ‘Don't tell, never tell, if they know they will hate you, if they find out  _ you will lose them _ ’. I'm trying to trust you because you're you, but it's going to be a while before the instinct wears off.”

Victor's heart wrenched at this statement of fear. He knew it had to be true, Yuuri wouldn't lie to him, but he was angry at the thought that someone could betray promises of love like that. His own birth had been the catalyst that caused his unmarried parents to be abandoned by his mother’s family. Ever since he’d learned of it as a child, Victor had sworn he’d never be like that. He pulled Yuuri into his arms and held him tightly. 

“Yuurotchka, I will tell you as often as you need that I'm not leaving. If you need it ten times a day I will tell you.” He kissed his fiance’s hair where he’d burrowed into Victor’s chest. The thought that Yuuri’s wolf fur had been even softer passed through his mind but was swiftly pushed away.

“Can you tell me more about it? How it happened? I think it would help me to understand, and maybe you’ll feel better for sharing. As your coach, I'd really like to know how you hid this so long.”

Yuuri nodded against his chest. “Can we eat first? I'm starving again.”

“Of course!”

Victor let his fiancé go and went to unpack the food he'd brought home. Yuuri’s face took on a blissful expression as the smell of steak wafted through the kitchen.

They ate quietly, both lost in their own thoughts. At first Yuuri’s thoughts were focused exclusively on his food, but eventually he noticed Victor watching him. 

“Is something wrong?” he asked nervously. 

“No,” Victor reassured him. “I'm just admiring how beautiful you are.”

Yuuri blushed and hunched back over his food.

When they finally pushed the dishes away, Victor tried again. “Yuuri,  _ zolotse _ , I don't know where to start and I don't want to ask the wrong thing. I feel like I'm in a dream still. I need to know more for my own sanity, but how about you choose where to start?”

Yuuri stared at the table for a while before finally nodding.

“I never wanted to keep secrets from you, Victor. Please believe me. But it's so scary knowing that most people lose their homes, their families, their children when they get found out. I couldn't lose you. I  _ couldn't _ . At first I couldn't bear the thought that my idol might look at me with horror and disgust. But then I got to know the real you, the annoying you that's so chipper in the morning, the one that forgets important dates and promises. The one that didn't flee from my weakness, who always encouraged me to do better without patronising or coddling me. The one that rents the most ridiculous cars available and uses his poodle as a pillow.

“I fell in love with the actual you and then I was  _ really  _ scared of losing you. I was kind of hoping you'd never find out.” He sighed. 

“I'm lucky. No one knows quite how or why MLP happens or why the treatments work the way do. But the treatments, the drugs, are all ISU-approved. It's a cocktail of endocrine, psychiatric, and, strangely, gastrointestinal drugs that keeps the transformations in check. My, um, medical paperwork is correct about which drugs I take, but a bit less, um, truthful about why I take them. To be honest I was shocked that you wanted to keep being my coach after you saw my medical file.”

Victor couldn't help laughing. “ _ I _ was a bit shocked to see how complicated you were, medically. This actually almost makes more sense. But I figured you'd been doing fine up until then so I'd just let you keep going without interfering.” He paused. “How did you convince Celestino to coach you?” 

Yuuri rubbed the back of his neck. Victor had a sudden image of those hands as huge paws instead and his stomach twisted.

“Minako convinced him. I have no idea how.”

“Minako? She knew?”

“She was the first person to know and the reason I got help for the MLP right at the start. The reason my parents didn't disown me or kill me accidentally in surprise.”

“How-”

“Vitya,” Yuuri interrupted. “This is… not a part I can talk about right now. Even that little has me shaking inside.”

“That’s alright,  _ zvezda _ .” Victor paused. “Would it help if we sat on the couch and I held you while we talk?”

Yuuri’s grateful look was so intense and immediate that Victor didn’t even wait for him to reply. He just stood and pulled Yuuri up into a crushing hug. “I’m here,  _ zvezda moya _ . I’m here,” he said softly. Without warning, he bent and swept his lover into a princess carry, startling an undignified squawk out of Yuuri. He grinned at the sound. Yuuri stared at him, then began to laugh.

Victor carried him to the sofa with as much pomp as he could manage and sat down still holding him. “There,” he said. “You’re on top of me so I can’t go anywhere.”

Yuuri laughed again. “Okay, Vitya. So, hm. The transformations go in cycles. It’s not based on the full moon, like I think I remember saying last night. People’s cycles vary from what we can tell. Mine is 38 days, plus or minus a couple. People claim anywhere from 20 to 45 days. There’s not much reliable data, since it’s difficult to get MLP sufferers to agree to being studied. You’d think that in women it would be related to the menstrual cycle, but it appears to be unconnected. We know it’s connected to hormones somehow, but the only actual study on it had just two participants and it was impossible to draw any conclusions. The researchers didn’t even publish the results. There appears to be a statistical correlation between lower blood pressure and the change portion of the cycle, but again, there’s too little data.”

“Yuuri, I’ve never heard you talk like this before. How did I not meet this side of you already?”

He laughed. “Well, it’s not like the details of my old physiology classes are very exciting. I never thought you’d be interested. You’re my fiancé, not my lab partner.”

Victor’s libido, which was quite acting outside the bounds of good sense, showed him an image of Yuuri bent over a lab bench, safety glasses tossed away, lab coat rucked up over his gorgeous ass as Victor _ very scientifically  _ fucked him senseless. The results would be published in the Proceedings of the Ass Studies Society.

While Victor was pondering the title of the paper they'd co-author, Yuuri, encouraged by Victor’s enthusiasm for his knowledge, was explaining complicated biomedical things like “endocrine” and “epigenetic susceptibility”. Victor heard only a little and understood even less. But Yuuri was more animated than Victor had seen him since his transformation, so he forced his brain to try to listen closely. 

It didn't work, but Yuuri would sometimes stop and try to explain a concept, often falling back in skating metaphors or relating it to medical concepts that he knew Victor was familiar with as an athlete. Yuuri’s enthusiasm for all that sciency stuff was new to Victor and he couldn’t believe he’d missed it. Yuuri on the ice was music and passion and grace. It was grit and determination. Yuuri talking about  _ hormone levels _ was… bubbly excitement and intelligence and fascination. It wasn’t hot like the lab bench of Victor’s runaway imagination, but he felt his impossible affection for his Japanese biology major take on a new sheen.

He  _ tried  _ to ask intelligent questions.

Yuuri giggled at him a lot.

Victor tossed his hair and declared he probably would be better at physics, what with all the experience calculating jump trajectories and whatnot.

Yuuri gave him a skeptical look.

Victor acted deeply wounded.

Yuuri reminded Victor that he had never once actually done such calculations on paper.

Victor said of course he hadn’t, he was such a genius that he didn’t need to.

Yuuri muttered that if he was such a genius, why couldn’t he open the post correctly like a civilised person?

There was nothing Victor could do in the face of such obvious lies and prejudice, so he wrapped his arms tightly around his fiancé, pressed his face into his shoulder, and blew a loud raspberry.

Yuuri shrieked in protest and instinctively shoved Victor away. Perhaps  _ he  _ should have done more physics, because Victor was still braced against the back of the couch and Newton’s Third Law shoved Yuuri right out of Victor’s lap and onto the floor. Victor crowed in triumph and threw himself on top of Yuuri before he could get himself upright.

“Tell me I’m a genius,” he demanded with a mock scowl.

“You’re a genius on the ice,” Yuuri said.

“Not good enough.”

Yuuri tried again. “You’re a genius at fashion.”

Victor preened, but remembered himself and scowled again.

“You’re a genius in bed?” 

He pondered. “Acceptable.” And he leaned down and nibbled on Yuuri’s ear in that way that made him into putty every time. Yuuri let out a barely audible moan. Victor grinned smugly. “See?”

“You win, you win,” laughed the man beneath him. “You’re a genius, especially in bed, and I want to discuss your latest research proposal. Do you need a co-author?”

And immediately Victor’s libido went right back to the vision of the lab bench and his lover bent over beneath him. He pretended to think about it. “Do you have a lab coat?”

“I might. I might even be tempted into digging it out of whatever box it’s in in our storage unit, for the correct…  _ experiment _ .”

Victor’s libido really needed to settle down and remember that it got sex multiple times a week and did not need to be so hyperactive. His libido disagreed, and suggested he ponder a moment how soft Yuuri’s wolf fur would feel on his cock. It was unfortunately like an ice bath being poured over his shoulders. He  _ really  _ needed to communicate better with his libido.

Yuuri’s smile faded as Victor grew still. “ _ Kuso _ ,” he muttered, then he sighed. “I almost forgot what we were talking about. I’m sorry, Vitya.”

“No, no,  _ zolotse _ ! You didn’t do anything wrong! I just got carried away, that’s all. I’m sorry I interrupted you while you were trying to teach me about your, um, MLP. Everything just felt so normal…”

“Yeah,” Yuuri said. “I really liked it.”

“Me too,” said Victor softly.

After a moment, he stood and offered Yuuri a hand up. The moment was lost, and without really discussing it, they moved back to the kitchen to tidy up. Yuuri was beginning to look haggard by the time they finished packing up the leftovers, so Victor suggested they return to the bedroom.

Yuuri sank facedown onto the bed with a relieved sigh. Victor sat beside him. Yuuri turned his head where it was mashed into the bedding and smiled. “Thank you, Vitya. I'm terrified. But I'm glad I don't have this secret from you anymore. I know it's freaking you out and I don't blame you and I promise I don't want to change and I won't unless there's an accident again. And thank you for taking care of me. I won't be able to skate tomorrow but I will feel a lot better.”

“I'm glad,  _ zvezda _ . You worry me like this.”

“I'm sorry I disrupted our lives with being like this. If I just don't change in the first place it's not a problem. I’m so sorry, Vitya.”

“Just get some rest, zvezda. I’ll be right here. If you wake up and I’m not, I’ll be right back, I promise.”

Yuuri nodded. “Thank you, Vitya.” He groaned as he shifted and settled himself under the covers. “The worst is my joints, for some reason. I’d take another hot bath, but I’m exhausted. Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow, my sleeping beauty. I’m not tired yet, but I can work on some ideas I had for Yura’s free skate next season. He said he wanted to skate something ‘like a tiger stalking prey’ and I’m having a hard time picking the right music. I’m going to contact one of my old composers and see if he can create something.”

“Mm,” Yuuri acknowledged sleepily. “Ask me about a step sequence I’ve been thinking about, it might fit the theme.  _ Oyasumi _ , Vitya.”

“ _ Priyatnih _ , Yuurotchka.” Victor’s voice was soft. 

He waited on the bed, playing a silly game about rabbits in space on his phone, until Yuuri’s breathing was slow and even. Then he quietly went to the living room to get his laptop, topping up Makka’s water and throwing her a biscuit as he went.

When he opened the computer, however, his thoughts refused to stay on choreography. He managed to send the email he’d mentioned, and then found himself googling his fiancé’s condition. There was precious little information. 

He frowned. He wanted to show his lover that he was supportive and accepting, and he wanted to know  _ more _ . Not that he’d understood a tenth of the science Yuuri had babbled at him. Opening another new tab, he typed “endocrine” into the search bar. He recognised the names of the glands the top result referenced, but what it  _ meant  _ still eluded him. He opened another tab.

By the time he closed the computer down and put it away, the main thing he’d learned was that he had no idea what any of it meant, nor what it could possibly have to do with his Yuuri being a goddamned  _ werewolf _ . But he had a reading list for the next day, and a few questions he hoped weren’t dumb scribbled down on a notepad that he’d ask Yuuri tomorrow. 

Victor slid under the covers and wrapped his arms around Yuuri. The soft, smooth skin was impossible to resist running his fingers over. He tucked his head against Yuuri’s shoulder and tried to calm his racing brain. Yuuri was still here, he was human, and Victor was going to learn to understand his condition. They’d be okay. They were going to be okay.


	3. In Which Victor Makes Some Mistakes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to keep to a regular schedule, but life runs away on me frequently. This fic is still ongoing, but it will update when I'm able. 
> 
> Since the last update I've had to travel, had houseguests, been sick multiple times, had sick kiddos... you get the picture. Plus, writing this one kicked my ass for some reason. Next chapter needs some smut, I think...

The following morning it was no more difficult than usual to roust Yuuri from bed. Victor, much relieved, watched him eat only slightly more than a normal breakfast, and when Yuuri said he was ready to go back to practice Victor grabbed his keys and training notebook with a brilliant smile that made Yuuri blush and duck his head.

Yakov glared at them balefully when they joined the other skaters on the rink but didn’t say anything. He’d learned the hard way that interrogating Victor about their absences was bad for his blood pressure. Victor observed his skater closely through the day, but Yuuri seemed to have recovered his stamina perfectly. Victor kept his relief hidden as well as he could, but at the end of the day Yuuri flashed him a shy smile and commented “I told you I’d be okay after a couple days.” He didn’t argue.

Sex that night confirmed that Yuuri’s stamina was back. Despite the full day’s practice, Yuuri responded to Victor’s moans of “harder,  _ please harder _ ” with a vigor that made Victor glad he didn’t have to take the ice himself anymore.

On the surface, life returned to normal. They skated, ate, slept, and fucked. They walked Makkachin and skyped with family and friends. If Yuuri was a little more anxious for Victor’s approval than usual, their rink mates chalked it up to a spat or to his anxiety about the upcoming season. And if Victor looked a bit more haggard in the mornings, Yuri gave them dark looks and never once dreamed that Victor was up late trying to teach himself biochemistry. 

For some reason, Victor was reluctant to share his research with his fiancé. Even when he questioned his own motives, he wasn’t sure if it was that he was ashamed to look stupid in front of his  _ obviously very scientific _ lover, or if he didn’t want to scare Yuuri somehow by being too interested in a thing that made him afraid, or if he just wanted to form his own impressions about this furry skeleton in the closet (he was pretty sure he was mangling the English expression somehow). Probably, he decided in the end, it was all three. Whatever the reason, it would have gone a lot faster with Yuuri’s help. 

Choreographing Yuri’s free skate for the upcoming season, at least, went faster with Yuuri’s help. They’d never let slip to the media that Yuri’s Japanese rival and his coach occasionally helped with designing his routines. The media had enough fun with Japan’s Ace being engaged to his own coach and skating at the same rink as the Ice Tiger, and it wasn’t worth trying to explain that it was only fun if each had the best possible routine. Yakov grumbled as usual about Victor not listening to him, but as usual, Victor ignored him. Yuri ignored them both, but he took the choreography.

Around the time of Yuuri’s next “cycle”, Victor gave up his attempts at self-directed study and signed up for an online course in introductory biology. Still reluctant to share his research, he stayed up late several evenings each week to complete assignments. He listened to lectures on his phone at the rink while Yuuri cross-trained in the ballet studio with Lilia and Yuri.

Yuuri informed him hesitantly over dinner one night that he was pretty sure that his cycle was going to start in the morning. Victor paused with his fork halfway to his mouth.

“How can you tell?”

Yuuri flushed. “Things feel different. My body. I feel a bit achy in my joints and I have to reorient my balance. Despite the medication, my body wants to change. I, um. Jumps are harder.” He played with his water glass. “My body wants a counterbalance I don’t have as a human.”

Victor’s forehead furrowed as he thought. “A tail?”

Yuuri nodded. “I’ve done it enough that I can manage my jumps mostly. I used to practice my jumps as a junior obsessively during my cycle, trying to adjust. When I went through my growth spurts it was… I don’t know how to describe it. I had to adjust to an unfamiliar body, but I was having to do that every month. It was more of the same. It’s one of the only times I felt lucky to have the MLP.”

“Yuuri,” Victor asked, putting down his fork, “is that why your jumps used to be so inconsistent? All this time?”

“Well, not  _ all  _ the time. But in juniors it was hard. I’m better at it now. After a good warm-up I can usually manage. I learned a lot during the summer and fall in Hasetsu, from you and Yura. The confidence helps. I’ll be fine at practice, unless I change again.” He paused. “Not that I want to. I’m trying not to. Don’t worry about me changing. It won’t happen.”

Victor forced a smile. “I know,  _ zvezda _ . I am sure it will be fine. How are you feeling about the jump placements in your free skate? I wanted to take advantage of your stamina so the back end of the free skate is a bit technically heavy, but that doesn’t leave a lot of room for mistakes. We should consider alternative placements.”

Yuuri looked up. “I think the quad sal could be turned into a quad loop-triple toe if I pop the quad flip, but if I pop the quad sal there’s not much time to recover and still keep the performance elements smooth.”

And dinner returned to skating.

The beginning of the season was on them before they really thought about it. Assignments for the Grand Prix series were released, with Yuuri drawing Skate America and Rostelecom and Yuri drawing Trophée de France and NHK. Commentators and fans in Russia and Japan were ecstatic with the two top-seeded competitors skating on each other’s home turf. It also ensured that the first time they would face each other would be for the Final in Winnipeg.

They doubled down on training. Lilia, who was strangely fond of Yuuri, permitted them one on one training at his request. Victor began rethinking the wisdom of his surreptitious studies with long days at the rink and evenings spent analyzing footage. Yuuri went to bed early in the evening, exhausted and conscious of the need to maintain his reserves. 

“Join me?” he asked Victor with a kiss one evening. 

“Mmm,” Victor hummed. “I’ll be in in a minute, I’m just going to go over some footage from last year’s Trophée.”

“Alright. I’ll warm the bed for you.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Vitya.”

When Victor finally closed his laptop and made his way to bed, he found Yuuri asleep with his phone in his hand and the bedside lamp still on. Feeling very guilty, he moved the phone aside and slid under the covers. Yuuri grunted sleepily and curled up into him.

Victor tried to be better about not neglecting Yuuri after that. It required a fair bit of juggling, but he managed to complete the majority of his work while his student was crosstraining. Yuri, never shy, badgered him regularly about whatever he was so engrossed in that wasn’t his pig of a fiancé.

The rink was consistently busy with all the skaters preparing for the start of the season. Mila, under Yakov’s watchful eye, was attempting to land a quad salchow. She’d finally gotten confident enough to have the jump harness packed away and everyone was waiting to hear her triumphant scream. Yuuri drilled jump after jump under Victor’s assessing eye, trying to build confidence in his entrances. They had designed his routines with difficult transitions this year to increase his TES since so many skaters were performing multiple quads. Yuri was working hard on connecting with the emotions of his routines and increasing his musicality. He had the “predator” aspect down cold, but “the sleek and sultry stalk of a tiger” was still eluding him. The rink was always busy.

“Hey, Katsudon!” Yuri yelled one day when they were both taking a break. “You do this emotions bullshit, help me figure this out.”

Yuuri, who was just then taking a sip of his tea, choked in surprise. “Me?” he squeaked.

“Yeah, you. What am I doing wrong?”

Yuuri gestured for him to take the ice and stood by the boards. He watched intently as the younger skater began his routine, marking jumps and focusing on the performance of it. When Yuri came to a halt he put his hands on his hips with an impatient “ _ Well? _ ”

“You’re caring too much,” Yuuri said without hesitation. 

“ _ What? _ ”

“Your prey knows you’re stalking it. It can tell you’re there. You’re alerting it. You can’t look like you care that much.”

Yuri, who would normally have some sarcastic reply, just looked thoughtful and skated off without a word. Victor moved close behind his fiancé and wrapped his arms around his waist. “You two make the season so interesting. I wish I'd had someone like you both when I was younger. Chris, Jora, and then young Otabek were excellent competitors but I never really worried I'd lose. You're so lucky, both of you.”

“Mm,” Yuuri hummed in agreement and turned to kiss his fiancé. “I really am lucky.”

“Yura really is the luckier one. I can work with you on technical elements and choreography, but Yakov isn't necessarily the best coach for performance elements. It's something I always struggled with but it comes so naturally to you. Having you around to demand advice from works very much in Yura’s favour. I look forward to when he finishes his growing - he's going to be an icon when he hits his full potential.”

Yuuri smiled at him. “I always love how proud you are of him. He's not even your student but you always celebrate his wins like they're yours.”

Victor smiled back. “Of course, I would rather you win. I do enjoy the victory katsudon, after all!”

Yuuri elbowed him and skated back out onto open ice. “Well, I should get back out there if I'm going to earn that katsudon! Vitya, watch my left blade as I jump, I think I have figured out the problem but I'd like your eyes.”

Two weeks before the Rostelecom Cup, Yuuri rolled over in bed and announced that he was going back to the rink to skate for a while.

Victor yawned and nuzzled into Yuuri’s shoulder. “Mm, alright,  _ zolotse _ . Nerves again?” 

“I can feel the tension starting to get to me. I need to go burn some of it off. I won’t be out too late, and I promise to only do triples.”

Victor smiled. Yuuri knew him so well. The midnight skates had caused arguments early in their relationship, with Victor worrying that his student would injure himself somehow with no one around. He watched sleepily as Yuuri changed into his workout gear and held his arms out for a goodbye kiss. His fiancé laughed and kissed him lightly on the lips. 

“Don’t wait up, alright, Vitya?” he said. “No need for you to lose sleep as well.”

Victor nodded. 

It wasn’t too late yet, so after Yuuri left, he pulled out his laptop and opened his course reading. He was starting to feel a little silly and a little dishonest about keeping his learning quiet. Despite the time, he wanted to take advantage of the surprise time to try to puzzle out the week’s assignment.

Some hours later, when Yuuri returned, Victor was asleep. He’d puzzled out about two thirds of the material but dozed off eventually, computer still open in his lap.

When he woke, Yuuri was already awake, sitting up with his arms around his knees and staring at the room. As Victor rolled over to say good morning, Yuuri spoke dully into the room. “Vitya, are you researching me?”

The realisation that he didn’t remember going to bed the night before hit him like a punch. While he was processing that, the realisation that his secrecy had played into Yuuri’s worries about his MLP knocked him right over. His brain flew through a hundred things he could say. Yuuri didn’t look at him.

He settled on honesty. “ _ Zvezda _ , I wasn’t researching you. But I want to understand what you go through better and I know this is a shock, but I’m not very scientifically minded. I don’t understand almost anything of what you tell me about your MLP and that bothers me because I feel like I can’t be there for you properly. I hate it. I’m your coach. And your fiancé. I signed up for an online biology course so I could maybe start understanding.”

He took a breath, looking down at the bed covers. “But it’s the start of the season now and you are working so hard, and I didn’t want to be bothering you when you need to focus. You need to be thinking about jumps and spins, not things most people learn in high school. You look so animated when you talk about sciency stuff. I want to be smart enough for you. I’m sorry, this isn’t making much sense but I love you and I’m sorry I hid it. Please forgive me.”

The room was silent for a long time. Yuuri didn’t say anything and Victor didn’t dare say more.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to trust you?” Yuuri finally asked, still not looking at Victor. “To trust anyone? Every day I wake up expecting you to be standing there beside my luggage. I tell myself ‘Not Victor, not my Vitya. He promised. He’s never broken my trust before.’ It’s not easy.”

Yuuri fell silent again and Victor continued to wait. Pushing his fiancé had always worked out poorly for him and he knew he was already skating on thin ice with Yuuri’s fears.

“Don’t coddle me, Vitya. You know that. And don’t hide  _ anything  _ to do with MLP from me. You wanted to not worry me but I’ve been up  _ all damn night _ trying not to vomit. I’m going to spend the next fuck knows how many months worrying that you’re hiding something else from me - I’m going to try not to, but I know myself.  _ Dammit, Vitya. _ ”

There was another long silence.

Yuuri sighed.

When he spoke again, his voice was softer. “I know it was just high school level biology, and you didn’t mean to hurt me. Since Barcelona, we’ve tried to get better at talking to each other, and we’re not going to be perfect at it all the time. I’m going to work really hard at not letting my fear get in the way, Vitya. You gorgeous, crazy man. I could have been helping you all this time. You’re probably only going to get a mediocre grade, if what was on your computer is representative. You need a coach too.” He rocked his body, bumping into Victor’s side. “You’re just doing baby bio. I could do this in my sleep, you know. It’d be more like giving me a newspaper sudoku than actually distracting me.”

Victor blushed. He didn’t deserve such easy forgiveness. Reaching up, he hesitantly pulled his lover’s face closer so he could look in his eyes. “I promise, Katuski Yuuri, that I only wanted to learn more so that I can understand you better and you can have someone to talk about it with. You’ve been alone so long with it. Now you have me. I might be  _ mediocre  _ at it but I’d rather that than you be alone.”

Yuuri smiled a little and Victor felt a bit of the tension in his gut release. “Thank you, Vitya. Right now I’m going to try to sleep since I haven’t all night.  _ You  _ get to call Yakov.”

Victor grimaced. _ Fair’s fair, after all _ , he thought. “I’ll go call him from the other room and then come back and be with you, if you want, so won’t worry about being alone. It might be a while, though. He’s going to yell a lot about missing practice so close to an event.”

Yuuri’s smile was wide this time. “He is, isn’t he? Makka!” he called. “Come join me while your  _ papotchka  _ pays for his crimes! Vitya, you’d be better spending that time memorising your allele frequency formulae.”

Makkachin came bounding into the room and hopped up on the bed excitedly, circling several times before settling down beside Yuuri. Victor, crowded and resigned, grabbed his phone and laptop and leaned down to kiss his fiancé. Yuuri, to his relief, accepted the affection.

He sighed. Yakov was going to have a lot to say about his shortcomings as a coach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, come join me on tumblr at myyoitrashblog.tumblr.com for periodic updates and a whole lot of other people's amazing fanart!

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are my lifeblood! This fic is fairly open-ended so far, so if you have a request or suggestion, drop me a comment, I'm happy to hear it!
> 
> I promise not to leave this fic hanging on you. Updates should be every other Friday.
> 
> Find me on tumblr at myyoitrashblog.tumblr.net


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